


Professor

by Gwenhwyfar1984



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 15:39:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13860813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwenhwyfar1984/pseuds/Gwenhwyfar1984
Summary: River Song's first day as a professor does not go exactly how she had planned.





	Professor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TanyaReed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaReed/gifts).



> Disclaimer: Doctor Who is the property of the British Broadcasting Company and other companies that I am in no way a part of or connected to. In other words, I Do Not Own.
> 
> TanyaReed gave me the prompt "first day on the job."

River Song entered the large, crowded hall and went straight to the podium. Ignoring the conversations she could hear, and the stares she could feel, she got to work setting up her presentation. Her nerves increased as the time went by, but she was well practiced on not letting them show. When the buzzer sounded, she cleared her throat and stood at the podium.  
“Good morning. I’m Professor River Song, and this is Twentieth Century Technology, 1950 through 2000. Now—“

From the middle of the seats a young man abruptly stood, gathered together his things, and ran from the room. Staring after him for a moment, River suppressed a grin. “I’ll repeat, this is Twentieth Century Technology, 1950 through 2000. Room 104. Anybody else in the wrong place? No? Splendid. Let’s get started then, shall we?” She projected the syllabus onto the screen and began discussing it. As she droned on about required readings, grading, attendance, and final exams, she began to relax into her new role. This wasn’t so bad. She could do this.

  
“I’ll take questions now,” she told her students. About a hundred hands rose into the air, and she randomly picked one. “Yes, the young woman in the twentieth row, blue shirt, black hair.”  
“Is it true that you’re a murderer?” the woman asked.  
River stared at the woman, stunned, and felt all of her confidence slip away. This was supposed to be a new beginning for her, yet once again, who and what she really was, was taking over.  
“That is not really relevant to the discussion, now is it?” River replied, dismissing the woman. She looked around, preparing to call for another question, when the woman spoke again.  
“I think it is. I mean, you’re our professor. If you spent time in prison then—“  
“Hey! Sit down and shut up! Some of us are here to learn about the Twentieth Century.” a familiar voice yelled from somewhere near the top of the lecture hall. River peered into the darkness but could not see the speaker clearly.  
“I…” the young woman faltered, looking around for support. Nobody seemed to want to join her, so the young woman sat. River took a moment to collect herself. Feeling the waves of support coming from the people she now knew were here, she continued.  
“Yes, this is Twentieth Century Technology, not the Life of Professor River Song. That is only offered during the third quarter.” There was some polite laughter and River smiled. “Now, are there any relevant questions?”

The lights were fully on, and the room was mostly empty, by the time River had packed up after class. She looked to the top row of seats and saw three people waiting for her. Grinning, she hurried up the steps to join them.  
“What are you doing here?” she asked.  
“It’s your first day as a professor! We wouldn’t miss this,” Amy replied, pulling river into a hug.  
“But…how did you know? I don’t remember telling you when it was.”  
“Spoilers,” The Doctor said, standing up.  
“Ah. Well, when are we?” She needed to find out before they continued. She pulled her diary out of her bag. “Area 52?”  
“Yes, Wife.” He kissed her cheek. “Treetop kingdom of Lambda Velorum?”  
“Oh, definitely,” River replied with a grin. To her delight, The Doctor turned a light shade of pink. “Four months ago. It was the last time I saw you.”  
“Yes, well…” He cleared his throat and clapped his hands together, ignoring the narrowed eyes Rory was giving him. “They insisted on seeing you on this day.”  
“We never got to any of your graduations so we were not about to miss this” Rory explained.  
“You were at my high school graduation.” It had been the high school ceremony when they had all been graduating at the same time, and she had been Mels, their best friend.  
“But this time we get too look at you with parental pride. Our daughter, the professor! Not that we didn’t feel a little bit of pride in seeing you graduate from high school. Goodness knows it took a lot of work to get you there…” Amy said as they left the lecture hall.  
“We were hoping to take ou out to celebrate with dinner on this beautiful planet orbiting the binary system of Alpha Andromedae,” The Doctor explained. “Then maybe I can take you to—“  
“Doctor, we agreed only on dinner. River probably has a lot to do,” Rory interrupted.  
“Time machine, Roranicus. How many times do I have to remind you I have a time machine? I’ll get her back in plenty of time.”  
“Dinner sounds lovely, and I have my vortex manipulator of I need it,” River said. The Doctor scoffed and shook his head.

  
They arrived at her office and she unlocked the door. Turning on the lights she saw that it had been decorated. Streamers in shaded of pink and yellow hung across the ceiling, while large balloons floated in the corners. A banner that read “Professor River Song” hung across her window, and a large pink bakery box sat on her desk.  
“What?” She turned to her family. This was obviously their doing. “Why?”  
“We told you: this is a celebration. You’re our daughter. Let us go a little overboard, hmm?” Amy pushed past her and went over to the pink box. Opening it, she motioned River over. Inside was a cake with white frosting. A graduation cap was in one corner and “Congratulations!” was written in swirly red icing.  
“They didn’t really have a professor decoration so we figured this would do. Cap, school, university, learning. It’s all connected.”  
“It’s prefect, Mum,” River said. “All of it is perfect.”  
“Wait!” The Doctor pulled a small bag out of his pocket and placed four tiny candles onto the cake.  
“Doctor, it’s not her birthday,” Rory said. From the exasperation in his voice they had obviously had this discussion before.  
“Cakes need candles. It’s a rule.”  
“Where?”  
“Let’s take the cake to the TARDIS and get going. Ooh! And the balloons. Can’t forget them.” He picked up the box and Amy immediately took it from his hands. “Right. Come along, Ponds. All the Ponds together! Excellent!”  
“You know, if my marriage to Rory makes him a Pond, then your marriage to River makes you one too. That’s how it works, right?” Amy said.  
The Doctor stopped near the doorway and turned to Amy. His expression was deer-in-the-headlights and River suppressed laughter.  
“A Pond and a Song,” Rory added. “How are they going to know who we’re calling? They’re both Doctor too.”  
“Hmm…we’ll have to come up with something.”  
“That’s…that’s not how it works,” The Doctor protested, following them out the door. Their discussion continued down the hall.

River placed her teaching items on her now empty desk. She looked around at the barely filled shelves that held books and random artifacts she had gathered together through her travels. Yes, this was where she belonged. She could do this.  
But she also belonged with her family, so she locked up her office and hurried after them, eager for a celebratory dinner…and probably an adventure.


End file.
